As for the Keira Knightley version, I flat out, absolutely LOATHED it, and its not just because they took so many liberties with the plot and the language (as my favorite book, I’m very familiar with what Jane Austen wrote, and how much the adapter has improvised). No, I hated it on so many levels it was hard to divine what my specific objections to just about every scene was. For one thing, although I have seen her in other things I liked, Keira was all wrong for Elizabeth, she just doesn’t have that for want of a better word “intelligent smartass” about her that Elizabeth is. She lacks the maturity on screen that even young Elizabeth must have, the forcefulness of character, frankly, the charisma. She would have been better cast as Miss Darcy, not as Elizabeth.

She acted as a modern young woman plunked down in a period piece romance novel, not as a contemporary young woman with a few touch ups for a modern audience’s benefit. For example, the confrontation scene when Darcy proposes and she rejects him, aside from the fact that the director decided to get them both wet for some unfathomable reason, she kept getting up in his face, was standing far too close to him, in his personal space, as it were. We’re talking about an 1800s disagreement in a parlour, not a modern day lover’s tiff in the middle of the street. They simply would not have been comfortable enough, or intimate enough, to be each other’s faces like that, never mind you wouldn’t be getting that close to someone you genuinely disliked. Plus I can’t identify just what specifically was lacking, but she didn’t get the period cadence and manner of speaking right. Some actors can do one historic period and not another — for example, much as I love Colin Firth, he did a version of Importance of Being Earnest where he really didn’t get the period banter, the ironic drawl, the Oscar Wilde style right, whereas his fellow star Rupert Everett is absolutely FABULOUS with it, just great. Oh well.

Let’s see, what else did I hate about it? The casting was hit and miss, more miss in my opinion, I was underwhelmed by the acting talent on display, I kept getting the distinct impression it had been mounted as a Keira Knightley production, rather than an ensemble piece with lots of interesting characters, they took numerous liberties with the dialogue, and while they have to pander to the general lack of education of the average movie attendee, and remove some of the esoteric references that most people don’t get, they went far too far to my mind, they took out comments and plot points to the point where I felt that someone who hadn’t read the book would have a problem understanding the plot progression or the motivation of the characters. Basically, they changed the dialog and plot too much, then they jammed modern characters and behavior into period costumes, plunked them down on a period piece set, and then inserted the most ridiculous ending scene I’ve ever seen attached to a Jane Austen adaptation.

Glad you like the stories :)

Incidentally, your reading of the book was just fabulous. A joy to listen to, and I loved the birds in the background.

Finally, I was walking the dog this morning as usual, here in Central Arkansas, which is really a beautiful place. Was listening to my iPod, to Cast-On, and suddenly, you are reading me a story! It was wonderful to hear your voice, like an old friend. And the story was so sweet. Thank you.

I’m knitting socks and socks and socks. Such a simple pleasure.

Katie (kdgibboney on LibriVox)

I missed all the other new stuff, oh, except I caught part of Mansfield Park. It wasn’t bad enough to turn off, but nothing to write home about and it felt like 2/3 of the story was missing. I agree, the waltzing was bizarre — especially since the new and shocking waltz probably wasn’t even being done in nice wholesome English country society in Jane’s day.

Yeah, I was basing my good opinion of Davies’s work on the Firth/Ehle P&P, and his Wives and Daughters, which I love (though of course the end, with the TROUSERS, is hard to stomach, but oh well, he had to get them together somehow…) I guess he got too big for his britches. Re-plotting Austen and Forster. How dare he? ;-)

Speaking of hating, did you hate the Keira Knightly P&P as much as I did? Good grief.

I’ve been watching the entire series of the Jane Austen collection that Masterpiece has been broadcasting (my favorite author), and after seeing them, it didn’t surprise me that Andrew Davies took a lot of liberties with the plot and characters in RWAV. I also saw their special on Celebrating Jane Austen, where he talked about his philosophy, how he had to add all this action to the pieces, having the men riding about, lots more physicality, lots more physical contact, and I thought, geez, you don’t get it, not only was the author not in a position to have a lot of real life experience of intimate interpersonal romantic behavior, or if she had any, it wasn’t the sort of thing polite people talked or wrote about, but her works were character studies, interpersonal studies, they absolutely were not about young men riding about the country and fencing and dueling, its about social observation and commentary.

I really loved his old Pride and Prejudice adaptation, he didn’t stray from the plot TOO much, even though I know enough to know exactly when he did. But it would be hard not to really like it, it was so well cast.

I haven’t seen the Emma. As for the newly adapted Jane Austen works, I thought Northanger Abbey was done particularly well, thought it was the best cast and acted of the bunch, I also liked Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility (although Emma Thompson’s version was much, much better) to a lesser extent, but as in Room with a View, he either didn’t get or willfully changed a number of the characters. He either didn’t get or didn’t convey the avarice and calculation of Anne’s family, how they mistreated her, the level of interference of Lady Russell (or the eventual break between her and Anne), etc. In Sense and Sensibility, he completely missed conveying that the apparent preference toward Ms. Steele was a deliberate slight to Eleanor, he underplayed the family throwing Colonel Brandon at Eleanor, he got the scene between Eleanor and Willoughby during Marianne’s illness wrong, etc.

And Mansfield Park was a complete muddle: Lady Bertram’s character was completely rewritten to bear little to no resemblance to the original, Fannie wasn’t well cast IMHO, Miss Crawford wasn’t as calculating as she should have been, Aunt Norris was a shadow of her true character, the whole background of the estrangement between the two halves of the family was lost, and the final straw was having Fannie and Edmund WALTZING at the end while the family stood around looking interested. Puhlease. If even a married couple had done such a thing in public in those days, it would have been scandalous, unthinkable. I know you have to adapt things for a modern audience somewhat, but a complete departure from contemporary mores is ridiculous.

Everyone else who watched this crapfest, go watch the 1985 Merchant Ivory version and wash the nasty taste out of your mouth. :)